Detox / dental fillings and mercury

Howard

I just had an anaysis done which showed I have a moderately high level of heavy metals in my body: specifically, mercury, gold and also lead. Apparently this is quite a load for liver and kidneys and immune system in general. I have a lot of fillings with old amalgam in my mouth, as well as gold caps. And I'm 61 so they've been in my mouth a looong time.

The holistic practictioner I visited noted that I seem to being doing pretty well healthwise despite that, and commented that most people with those results would tend to have some physical and also psychological problems (who knows, maybe I do!!).

However he suggested that I do a complete detox program to strengthen my organs and then a few months later have the fillings removed bit by bit. I'm a bit freaked out a) at the idea that I might have this "toxic handicap" and b) at the costs of a complete detox and the filling removal.

Some posts in the internet say that proper detox and removal of old mercury-based fillings have made a huge difference to health, well-being and just plain old happiness. If it does make such a difference, I'd be inclined to go for it.

Anyone have any experience/comments? Thanks

H

codename_duchess

The review here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11258092 a meta-analysis (the gold standard for medical evidence) suggests that the evidence is 'overwhelming' that it's safe.
Science-based Medicine is my go-to website for all things alternate medicine. They have an article explaining more https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/mercury-amalgam-fillings-and-you/
Chelation is not something to undertake lightly as it has side effects, and detox is a nefarious word used to sell you something that your kidneys do on their own.
Wikipedia has a good entry on the controversy (it goes back to the 1800s) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_amalgam_controversy
There are people (often who honestly believe what they say) who make claims that are not backed up by the evidence who will tell you that you are ill and sell you the cure. A good test would be to see another medical professional and, without telling them the previous results, get a second opinion. If the diagnoses match then I would be more convinced, but I would guess that another holistic practitioner will tell you that something completely different is wrong with you and sell you a different cure.
You could always go and ask your dentist.
If anyone is interested in how to know about how to tell what's a scam and what isn't, I'd recommend Dr Ben Goldacre's Bad Science (although any of his lectures online will be a good start).

Angeline

A big "hell yes" to everything @codename_duchess said.

Another good way to debunk something, or at least get a balanced view, is Google whatever it is plus the word "hoax" or "scam".

JellyBean

I'm a hygienist at a holistic dental office. It's true that most people do ok with minor exposure to heavy metals. If you're currently healthy there is no need to panic.  

In our office we do a lot of removal of silver amalgam fillings. When we do that the doctor and assistants wear respirators and the patients wear a dental dam and a nose cone to reduce inhalation and ingestion of the vapor containing mercury. 

My suggestion to you as a science-based hippie would be to move forward within your budget and time restraints to have the silver fillings replaced not only due to the real and ongoing risk of heavy metal toxicity but also due to the fact that nearly all silver amalgam fillings fail and have microleakage (decay) around their margins. Further, the coefficient of thermal expansion for the silver amalgam material is far larger than for dental enamel. Meaning, the expansion and contraction of the fillings is significant just in the course of eating hot or cold foods. This tends to cause cracks and craze lines in the enamel, weakening the tooth and increasing risk of fracture and decay. 

Unless you are sick you probably don't need to spend much time or effort doing a detox. Heavy metal chelation is expensive, very uncomfortable, and has unpredictable, inconsistent results. 

ETA: Gold is typically highly biocompatible. Unless it is heavily alloyed (more than usual) with base metals gold is usually a good dental restorative metal.  Do you know if you have root canal in the tooth with the gold crown (or any other teeth)?

Reborn

@Jellybean so what do you replace amalgam fillings with?

JellyBean

@Reborn the new restorations are typically made of various kinds of ceramics and plastics, less frequently with high noble metals. 

Howard

Thanks for chiming in @JellyBean - I've had several root canal removals, but I don't think they're where the gold is, to answer your question. Although my gold caps are in themselves a good material for dental repair, apparently having two different metals (i.e gold and mercury) in your mouth is not good, as there is an electrical difference between them-just like in old car batteries- which promotes a measurable current and leakage from the metals via the conductor (saliva). Normally gold doesn't leach into your body at all I'm told, but in my case it has. So I've been advised to at least have the gold replaced, as long as the amalgam fillings are in my mouth.

About the amalgam: there are a lot of reassuring statements that mercury in your mouth is not a concern. People often believe what they want to believe and as in any controversy, there are vested interests in avoiding litigation and supporting an existing system: for instance, health insurance here in Europe won't pay for my Sleep Apnoe treatment with a dental brace worn at night even though it works great, because the CPAP mask is the known (expensive and not always effective) treatment. 

In 2012 a European comission recommended phasing out dental amalgam use over the next few years owing to mercury’s negative impact on the environment. So, just like with tobacco, diesel fuel, and who knows what else, it's possible that there is change afoot with the use of mercury, especially in our mouths. There's disagreement on whether mercury's use in dental repair is a risk to individual patients, although there are plenty of documented cases of dental workers being seriously affected. Nobody's actually saying mercury isn't toxic.

I got interested in this whole topic when stumbling across a website called the Superman Diet:

http://thesupermandiet.com/

I actually consider myself pretty healthy, and attention to diet, sleep & exercise help me generally feel ok. The tests I had done indicate that my body is not truly sick, but is dealing with a moderate toxic load and reduced capacity of some organ and immune functions -the diagnosis ties in with my history of respiratory and liver problems. Sometimes I feel uncontrollably anxious....not very often. Maybe that's just life.

But what if there's a whole other level of health, not just  "ok" physically, but in terms of mood, effectiveness, calm, energy & sexuality? According to the author, there is, when you get the toxins out of your body but by bit. It's quite an undertaking though. The mercury/amalgam topic is only part of this, but if you consider that in my case, I've been carrying mercury in my mouth for 50+ years, it's possibly a significant factor.

I'm still undecided, because of the cost and of course the risk of just falling for one more new health fad- but when the author of the SupermanDiet website talks about "feelings of unusual, unexplainable wellness,....a cure for adictive behaviours....joy and unusual calmness....stronger, sharper intuition"..and especially "Ninja sexual powers"....:-)!!!

.....it sounds like something to consider.


PS @Reborn my latest fillings and caps -the last couple of years-are all ceramic material. They look great and the new software which scans the tooth very accurately has them made to fit while you wait. Insurance doesn't pay for them though and they are more expensive than plastic or amalgam.

Jek

Check with your dentist, my amalgam removal and replacement was covered by my insurance, so no out of pocket cost.

JellyBean

Jek said:

Check with your dentist, my amalgam removal and replacement was covered by my insurance, so no out of pocket cost.

@jek in my case our holistic doc is solely fee for service and in my experience that's true of many/most holistic practitioners. Any dentist can drill out your old silver filling and replace it but most don't do any special protocols to prevent inhalation or ingestion of the vapor. 

Jek

I had a dam and nose guard in/on.  I think at one point that I had a Sears wet vac in there too.

I told the dentist that if I had 1 more thing shoved in my mouth, I was going to start charging him porn star rates.

Howard

So @Jek, may I ask please: how long ago was your amalgam replacement done? Did you have any testing done before/after for mercury in your system, and most importantly, do you notice any health difference(s) since the removal?

-------------------------

@JellyBean your comment that  most people do ok with minor exposure to heavy metals in interesting. The holistic practioner who made my diagnosis refers to the methods of Dr Dietrich Klinghardt, who is a German working in the USA. On his website there is a link to a 2003 Freiburg University study : "Amalgam Studies- Disregarding Basic Principles Of Mercury Toxicity". Well worth reading and it goes some way towards explaining why there are such widely differing opinions.

http://www.klinghardtacademy.com/Heavy-Metal-Toxicity/ /

JellyBean

What I meant by that was that nearly all of us have some level of heavy metals in our bodies. It's in the environment and the food chain and is practically unavoidable. And yet, most of us function adequately even with that challenge. 

Functioning adequately is not the same as functioning optimally. 

The truth is most people are so accustomed to having suboptimal health they think it's normal. One easy example is sleep apnea. People think they feel fine until they start sleeping adequately, when suddenly they feel terrific. 

Jek

@Howard  I had my removal about a year ago.  I noticed no change in health or anything, but I wasn't looking for any.  I am sure that if I would have been concerned, that I would have found some.
  I was never worried about amalgam before I went in, never gave it a thought.  I went to the dentist one day, he said it should be removed, I said ok and he removed it.  I never had that "worry" period in between to become healthy.

Jek

Worying is creating more health issues for you than amalgam.


Let's compare it with buying tires.

If you go to the tire store to look at tires, you are already concerned about your safety, so any confirmation from the tire guy about your concerns turns into validation.  The guy says that your tires are 1/64th" under "Safe" and you become worried.  Next thing you know, you are dropping $1000 for tires.  When you drive away, even though you didnt have the money to spend, you feel relaxed, happy, and "healthy" because you are no longer worried.

Now let us say that you had visited the tire store because you noticed a nail, and want them to remove it.  The tire guy measures your tires and says that they are 1/64th" under that the manufacturer labels as "Safe".  Since you haven't had that concern or worry buildup, and the tire guy is not confirming the suggestion of "Unsafe", you decide to drive them a few more thousand miles until you have the money to get all new tires.  You drive away happy and healthy because the hole is fixed.

I think "Worry" creates more health issues, and compounds existing health issues.  If there is a concern, worrying will create a bigger issue.  If there is a large concern, worrying will make it worse.

So, stop worrying, and you will immediately feel better. Then, talk to your dentist, get some appointments set up, ask him about outside sourced financing options, and get the replacement done.  

TooEarlyTooLate

My teeth issues were well documented here but I have recently taken down my threads as part of my improvement plan so I will summarize.  I will tell you that I had several metal fillings, several metal crowns and a bad root canal...then got a diseased tooth when I first started about three years ago.  I was about a year into wellness and detoxification and nothing was really working.  I had the fillings removed first at the recommendation of my wellness doctor and saw my blood sugar drop from 105 to 95 and A1c drop from 5.8 to 5.5 from one blood test to the next.  I was clinically diabetic but not under treatment and afterwards I was not and have not been since then.  Prior to the removals my levels were always just over the level for diabetic conditions but never really wanted to treat them.  

After the removals I found that I had a diseased tooth and bad root canal so after lots of deliberation and 2x4's here I had them removed and my blood levels improved everywhere.  My TSH was in the 3.0 range which is less than optimal for weight management and my white blood cell count was always less than 3.5 which is far too low for a healthy immune system.  These were two of the worst issues but there were many more including elevated liver enzymes.  Once I had them removed (like within weeks) my TSH was lowered to 1.5, which helped me lose over 20 lbs and my WBC is almost 6.0 which going back 17 years of blood tests I have never been over 4.3.  I have had follow up blood tests and these levels have held as my body is no longer fighting my mouth issues.  

I am no doctor and for the most part find it hard to believe that your teeth health could play such a big factor in your general health but it can and in my case did.  You might be similar but as @JellyBean suggested your system might have completely adjusted to it and it could be no problem.  I will say, if you get them replaced, do them right with a dentist that can keep as much of the material out of your system as possible.  I did not do that I still wonder if having the wrong procedure done caused my diseased tooth.  I will never know but I would do it differently if there was ever a next time.   

SuzyQ

Two years ago I had my single 30+ year old amalgam filling replaced at the advice of my holistic medical doctor.  When they went in to remove the filling there was infection and my tooth had cracked (none of which could be seen until the filling came out).  The pictures the dentist showed me almost made me vomit.  

I had previously been diagnosed with fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue and have Hashimotos Thyroiditis, celiac and Raynaud's Syndrome.  I had tested positive for Rheumatoid Arthritis consistently for the year prior.   In short, I was a mess and no matter what I tried prior to the removal of my filling I never felt well and caught every bug that went around.  I had spent tens of thousands of dollars and lots of time seeking both conventional and holistic medical advice.  

While I did a 30-day juice/herb detox afterwards, I did not do chelation as the research I did on it did not convince me it was necessary or a legitimate treatment in my situation. I did use a dentist that practised safe removal techniques (I figured the last thing I needed was to ingest more mercury into my system), but it was mostly covered by my insurance.  
Within 3 months I no longer tested positive for RA, my joint pain decreased to nothing and the following winter I had no Raynaud's symptoms after having them for 10+ years.  

All that said, I don't think the mercury exposure was my biggest issue - I think it was the infection my body was constantly trying to fight off.     

The biggest issue with amalgam fillings to me is what @Jellybean said about the expansion and contraction.  They just aren't build to last for decades and eventually they are going to crack the tooth and lead to infection.  
  

Howard

Thank you @TooEarlyTooLate and @SuzyQ for sharing the stories. I'm still collecting information and have found a possible -and much less expensive !-way to do a detox.

I need to talk to my dentist, but am fairly certain that I'll have the gold removed from my mouth as it makes sense to me how the two metals in proximity in my mouth could increase leakage. Removing the Amalgam could still be a good idea but it doesn;t have to happen tomorrow.

@Jek thank you for your comments too, that makes a lot of sense. I realised I'd been allowing myself to worry about life- there are changes afoot in my professional world- and the assessment gave me something to hang that anxiety on. Today I slept longer and began clearing out my working space, as well as reaching out to my eldest son who I don't often speak to. I also cooked some delicious food. Life is pretty good and I intend to be around for a long while yet.